


deeper scars

by MavenMorozova



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Blood, Blood and Torture, Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, F/M, Heavy Angst, Malfoy Manor, Not Canon Compliant - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, One Shot, POV Draco Malfoy, POV Hermione Granger, Psychological Torture, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:22:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23978917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MavenMorozova/pseuds/MavenMorozova
Summary: A Dramione AU of the Bellatrix-Hermione torture scene in deathly hallows. a mix of the book and movie canons!
Relationships: Dean Thomas/Ron Weasley (background), Harry Potter/Luna Lovegood (background), Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Kudos: 26





	deeper scars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dim_sum_05](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dim_sum_05/gifts).



> this is for my beloved sister Danielle who loves Dramione (yes sis i will read Simply Irresistible soon).  
> Also written for Hogwarts Online's Sprint 2020 OWLs--prompt: _silence_.

Hermione Granger lay on the floor, sobbing and close to broken. A dark shape hovered above her, blocking out the flickering light of the room she was in. She could not see, could not feel, could not breathe. At this point, she barely registered the bout of pain that coursed through her for perhaps the millionth time. The shape in front of her--a woman--screamed as her face contorted in pure loathing. No, Hermione realized, the woman hadn’t screamed at all-- _ she _ had.

For a moment, the pain receded, and Hermione gasped a loud breath as her vision cleared. Bellatrix Lestrange was barely an centimetre from her face, the evil woman’s wand skimming her cheek. “Fucking filthy mudblood,” Lestrange spat, her spittle landing all over Hermione’s face, but she didn’t flinch. She couldn’t have. She was frozen emotionally and mentally, trapped in a prison of her mind.

Then suddenly, the light was back, shining dimly from the ornate chandelier that hung above Hermione’s head. Lestrange had moved away, leaving Hermione to cradle her arm dully, not registering the word that was inscribed there. She felt tears leaking from her eyes and spilling from her cheeks down onto her wrist. Then, suddenly, her eyes focused, and Hermione saw the red blood pulsing from her skin, making out crudely drawn writing.  _ Mudblood _ . That’s all she was. That’s all she was.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Lestrange bunch her fists in anger, and she remembered. The Death Eaters had been questioning her--no, torturing her--for information about Godric Gryffindor’s sword, but she hadn’t known a thing. Hermione still did not understand.

“She’s worthless,” Lestrange scoffed as she rolled down her sleeves. “Leave her.” Hermione saw her heels click across the tile and join her sister, who was slightly shaking and gripping her son’s shoulder for support. Draco Malfoy wore a torn expression on his face, his eyes in pain as he watched Hermione.

_ Draco’s teeth chewed down on the insides of his mouth, anxiety clawing at his insides. He watched as the love of his life lay broken on the tile floor of his parlor, blood pooling from one spot hidden by her lithe arm. He wanted to run to her, he wanted to crush his lips against hers and disapparate, he wanted to take her away to a place where they could forget all of this. _

_ But something else rooted him to the spot--something stronger to his brain than the potent chemical that was love. This was fear, and it ripped Draco in two, leaving a part of him with Hermione and the other with his family, the cause he’d pledged to, everything he’d ever known. _

They loved each other, they did--they knew each others’ deepest secrets and most potent desires, they’d been sleeping together for a year; they’d been together in secret for the better part of three. Hermione knew that Draco felt close to his mother and would do anything to protect her; she knew that he wished he could be as far from Lord Voldemort as possible, but couldn’t because of his status as a Death Eater; she knew that he loved her--how he would  _ die  _ for her--and yet, she saw him standing there amidst her torture, doing absolutely nothing. Why?

_ Draco still kept his feet stuck to the same spot on the floor when his mother’s fingers gently brushed his shoulders and left him to join her husband, Aunt Bellatrix, and the others. How, though, could he ever call her that again-- _ Bellatrix _? Not after this. He wondered if he would think the same if the girl lying in front of him wasn’t Hermione. _

The Death Eaters retreated into the far corner of the sitting parlor, leaving Draco behind, standing there, struggling against an invisible barrier. He approached her cautiously, his hand quaking as he reached out for her hand. Hermione snatched it close to her, her lips curling into a snarl. “You left me to that evil woman,” she spoke quietly, her voice hoarse. She extended her arm to him, revealing the red scrawl there.

Draco cringed and Hermione sneered at him, turning away. “Go join your little Death Eater friends,” Hermione hissed. “Apparently, that’s where you belong.”

_ There was only one option left to him. He looked at Hermione, he saw her physical and emotional pain, saw the trauma that Bellatrix had left there. No matter what he did, Hermione would never be the same, that Draco knew. These things--they left deeper scars than what met the eye. The mudblood written on her arm would stay there forever, just as Draco’s Death Eater tattoo would, but their memories would be far more painful. _

_ Still, though, Draco’s silence had brought nothing. What had he held off for? What was the point of hiding further? There was no life for him without Hermione. _

Draco straightened up and looked around nervously, his eyes flitting quickly to where Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy sat hunched over, their voices low as they discussed their next moves--probably what to do with Harry, Ron, Dean, and Griphook the goblin, in the manor’s basement. The next second, his hand was on Hermione’s shivering arm, and they were hurtling through space through in a thickly compressed tube--

Hermione and Draco landed on the edge of a cliff that looked over onto the ocean. It was nowhere that Hermione recognized, but it was warm and it was bright and it was peaceful. She leaned into Draco’s touch despite herself, and Draco cradled her in his arms. Hermione sobbed into him, his robes clenched in her grip.

_ “Oh, no,” Hermione suddenly mumbled. She pulled away and let out a song that was somewhere between a sob and a gasp. “I left Harry and Ron there--they’ll be killed--oh, Draco--” _

_ He bit his lip, unsure of where to go, what to say, what to do. He’d always hated Harry and Ron until his connection with Hermione, and since had developed a reluctant and grudging respect for the pair. And yet--what could he do? “I don’t think--” he began. _

Hermione cut Draco off before he could even finish the breath. “You don’t think what? You would give up on my two best friends that easily?” She tore herself from his embrace and backed away, looking behind her into the rippling ocean. And still, he always seemed to have an excuse. “You claim to love me, Draco, and yet… you join a cause that works to destroy people like me, you stand by as I have my mind ripped apart by your aunt, you let my friends die.” She turned back to him, utterly furious. “If you love me, truly, then act like it.

“Love is more than kisses and sex. Love is more than promises and shared plans for the future. Love is more than a deep connection that you’ve never felt before. You can do all that shit, but without the actions behind the words, it's all--just that. Bullshit.

“Real love requires sacrifices, and change, and mental fortitude,” Hermione finished, eyes blazing. “Do you have... _ any _ of that?”

A few seconds passed where the only thing she could hear was the crashing of the waves against the cliff. Then, finally, Draco nodded at her tersely. “I’ll get them. There are protective spells against apparition and disapparition from the grounds, except for Death Eaters bearing the Dark Mark. You’ll have to stay here.”

Hermione nodded and collapsed onto the grass, head falling into her sore hands. “Go!” she nearly shouted when she saw that he’d not left yet. “Go!”

He disapparated.

_ Draco found himself in his own basement, cold and damp and inhabited by prisoners of the Death Eaters. A dim light seemed to be hovering in the air a few metres away. He approached it cautiously before a familiar voice hissed at him. _

_ “What are you doing down here, Malfoy? _

_ It was Potter, slouched against the wall, his arm wrapped protectively around that Ravenclaw girl Loony Lovegood. Next to him, the old wandmaker Ollivander and the goblin Griphook glared at him. Ron Weasley’s head lay in the Gryffindor Dean Thomas’s lap. The darker boy was stroking Weasley’s hair absentmindedly, and Draco felt a sudden desire to touch Hermione’s bushy hair, to return to where she was on the cliff--but he had to prove his love to her. _

_ “I am here to rescue you, Potter,” Draco sneered. Old habits died hard, after all. _

_ “But--what--?” Weasley asked confusedly. “Why would you--and how--?” _

_ “There will be time to explain later,” Draco said shortly. “Don’t be thick and take my arm.” He held out one robed limb apprehensively. The six of them took it, their faces as mutinous as his was. Together, they disapparated with a loud crack and returned to where Hermione sat alone on the cliff. _

_ Later, they would explain it all. But for now, Draco took Hermione in his unfettered arms and kissed her deeply for all the others to see, her eyes fluttering closed as he laid a pale hand on her dark cheek, their path forward undoubtedly laden with difficulties, but they would weather them together, as they had just now. For now, at the very least, they were free. _

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! as always if you liked it make sure to leave a kudos and i always love comments, whether they are praise or feedback. stay safe, everyone!


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